Sports minister Gayton McKenzie has promised to launch an investigation into the finances of Athletics South Africa (ASA) after it emerged in parliament that president James Moloi used a company credit card at taverns, liquor stores and other retail outlets.
Appearing before the portfolio committee for sport, arts and culture, Moloi said one liquor store charge on his company credit card was actually for food during a business meeting.
But ANC MP Matsholo Mmolotsane, who grilled him in parliament on Tuesday on his credit card transactions, dismissed his explanation and called for a forensic investigation into his credit card spending since 2021.
McKenzie told the committee later he wanted the federation investigated.
“There’s no meeting that can be held in a tavern. The music is so loud in a tavern. How do we listen? How do we hear each other in a tavern? Who has a meeting in a tavern? People are dancing ...
“I will have a full forensic audit with immediate effect.”
Questioning Moloi on his credit card statements submitted to parliament, Mmolotsane highlighted various transactions, including at taverns, at least one liquor store, two at fast food outlets KFC and Nando’s, one at a Pick n Pay Express, another at clothing store Foschini, one at a sweet shop and several at OR Tambo Airport.
Moloi, who explained he had voluntarily given up the credit card in a bid to cut expenditure, insisted he had used the card only for business-related expenses.
“As the president of Athletics South Africa, let me explain something, I normally meet different people ... business people, the people that have promised me to make business with ASA ...
“They will tell you that other clients or members, especially business people, ‘can we meet in such a such an area because I’m there now?’...
Something like a restaurant, it’s understandable. You cannot meet Matsholo Mmolotsane in a bottle store and say it was a business meeting ... I’m not sure what kind of clients are being met in taverns and liquor stores
— Matsholo Mmolotsane
“Where you invite a person, you have to pay for that particular person,” said Moloi, who was re-elected as president along with most of his board last month.
During his explanation, committee chair Joe McGluwa pressed Moloi to answer Mmolotsane’s question about the liquor store. “Who are you meeting at the liquor store?”
Replied Moloi: “Like I said you meet clients and that particular client will tell you that, ‘hey, can we meet, and can you buy me something because we’re going to feed someone?’ I mean, I can do that. I can maybe buy food for them in the liquor store.
“So it’s not a matter of saying I was buying for myself.”
Mmolotsane wasn’t convinced. “The explanation that the president just gave us, it doesn’t hold water,” she said.
“Something like a restaurant, it’s understandable. You cannot meet Matsholo Mmolotsane in a bottle store and say it was a business meeting ...
“I’m not sure what kind of clients are being met in taverns and liquor stores.”
On the airport transactions Moloi said he often met people travelling through OR Tambo.
Nando’s, he said, involved buying food for athletes during a cross-country event.
Moloi was also criticised for using the credit card during the Christmas break, from December 2023 to January 2024, when the ASA office was closed.
He said he worked most weekends and was not limited to ASA’s office hours.
Mmolotsane said either the department of sport, arts and culture or the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) should probe spending on all ASA credit cards and have a report in three months.
“They must conduct a forensic investigation.”
EFF MP Eugene Mthethwa questioned R8,938 spent at Norman Goodfellows off-sales in Illovo, close to the federation’s headquarters, on an ASA credit card on December 13 last year, three days before Moloi’s birthday.
Acting CEO Terrence Magogodela denied it was for the president, saying it was for artists they had booked for the federation’s annual awards they were preparing to host the next month.
Mthethwa also queried the presence of a Mr Mulaudzi, who was frequently in Moloi’s company. The president said Mulaudzi was a policeman who had volunteered to accompany him — at no expense to ASA — to ensure his safety after he was almost hijacked in Vosloorus.
MPs also questioned ASA on the problems surrounding the Soweto Marathon Trust and the Mpumalanga Marathon.
McKenzie said it wasn’t right that he helped ASA raise sponsorship money amid such allegations.
“If I go tomorrow and ask people to give ASA money, which I’ve done in the past — I’ve raised millions for you already, I picked up a phone and I raised millions for Athletics South Africa — but now I hear these things of taverns. It can’t be right.”
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